December 8th and Frank Sinatra are forever intertwined. Both great news and tragic news struck the Sinatra family on this date in Italian American history.
On December 8th, 1949, the feature film “On The Town” opened to raucous crowds and rave reviews across the United States. Starring Frank Sinatra alongside Gene Kelly and Ann Miller, “On The Town” was the film adaptation of the successful Broadway musical. “On The Town” turned the then 34-year-old Sinatra into a bonafide Holywood star, generating over $4 million in sales in North America.
14 years later, December 8th would no longer be remembered as a celebratory day for the Sinatra family. Sinatra’s 19-year-old son and aspiring singer, Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped at the Harrah’s Club Lodge in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada. Luckily, a few days later, following an FBI investigation that included a $240,000 ransom demand by the suspects, Sinatra Jr., was freed